In the run-up to last weekend’s high-profile visit of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Middlebury College came this surprising announcement: The college was using the Dalai Lama’s visit, apparently, as an opportune time to publicly divest its endowment from investments supporting war and environmental destruction.  

At least, that’s what Tim Shornak, the “Director of the College Office of Communications of the Dalai Lama Welcoming Committee,” claimed in a press release emailed to students and faculty and posted on flyers around campus Oct. 12. But red flags went up quickly. The student online publication Midd Blog quickly realized “Shornak” wasn’t listed in the college directory — and, tellingly, used a Gmail address to send the message. Officials who were listed in the directory — such as director of communications Sarah Ray — disavowed the announcement. 

Earlier this week, the so-called “Dalai Lama Welcoming Committee” stepped forward.

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Kathryn Flagg was a Seven Days staff writer from 2012 through 2015. She completed a fellowship in environmental journalism at Middlebury College, and her work has also appeared in the Addison County Independent, Wyoming Public Radio and Orion Magazine.

5 replies on “Middlebury College Dalai Lama Prank Turns Focus on Endowment”

  1. Middlebury College absolutely should divest the kinds of investments — starting with divesting from oil, coal and natural gas companies that at destroying the planet’s climate. See http://math.350.org/-.
    – Greg Dennis
    Middlebury College Class of 1974

  3. Kathryn Flagg with an excellent article! Please contribute to pressure Middlebury to divest from war and environmental degradation by joining the growing contingent and voicing your support on our blog: middleburydlwc.wordpress.com

  4. Easiest way to guarantee my money goes to harvard and not to Middlebury…
    You should be ashamed, all of you, for such self righteous sanctimony…

  5. Classic. The student dissidents lie to make a larger point. They succeed in creating controversy. But they certainly could have made the very same point about what they assume to be true about the college investments without creating a fake press release and email. The college gives them a hearing but does not punish them other then a toothless reprimand. The dissidents act like they have been punished and have suffered at the hands of the cold profiteering college (the already greenest college in the US), and all they start ranting about the college’s “over-reaction.” The truth is that they never needed to create a fake press release in order to raise the issue. There are honest and salient ways to gain broader attention to the issue of the College’s investments. To make matter’s worse, they deceive the public at the time the Dalai Lama comes to the campus — the one guy who has gently yet steadfastly told the truth for decades about issues of justice and peace. He never needed to create fake stories to gain the world’s attention. They mistake deception for creativity. Their broader points are well taken and worthy of close discussion. And if the college is to invest in oil and arms, well then, the college should own up to it. But there is no need to pretend that which is deception is something else. Michael Mulligan, Midd ’75

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